Should We “Redeem” Culture?

How can we better engage (and disengage) culture in 2009? Much has been written about the extreme Christian postures towards culture–fundamentalist judgmentalism (Christ Against Culture) and emergent syncretism (Christ of Culture)—but is redeeming the culture the biblical middle? D. A. Carson doesn’t seem to think so.

Carson on Culture

D. A. Carson recently cautioned against using “redemption” language when engaging culture. He wrote: “Redemption terminology in the NT is so bound up with Christ’s work for and in the church that to extend it to whatever good we do in the broader world risks a shift in focus.” I love Carson’s commitment to the Bible, and he is correct that redemption terminology is often bound up with Christ’s work for and in the church. However, redemption is also bound up with creation and culture in the New Testament. Apparently, Tim Keller has been affected by Carson’s caution. His comment during a Q&A session at the Dwell Conference revealed sympathy for Carson’s position. Is redeeming culture wrong-headed? Let’s consider this question from Colossians:

Colossians on Culture

“and through him (Jesus) to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Col 1:20

The emphasis of this verse is upon the reconciling work of Christ, a subset of redemption, accompished through Jesus death on the cross. It accomplishes peace, shalom, restoration. The scope of the redemptive, reconciling, shalom promoting effects of the cross are universal. When it comes to people, they are reconciled by faith or by force. When it comes to all other things they are reconciled in fact. That fact is breaking into the present through the Church. All things then, including creation and culture, are affected by the already-not-fully redemptive work of Jesus on the cross. The church is the embodiment of the redemptive gospel to and in the world, which is made plain by the rest of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The implications of this culture redeeming posture are spelled out in Paul’s ethical exhortations regarding society and vocation. He tells the church to produce counter-cultural, redeemed forms of:

marriage and family, a social institution:

work and slavery, cultural norms and ills

social, economic, and ethnic prejudice and barriers

how we spend our time, a rather sweeping category that applies to everything!

“Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of (literally “redeeming”) the time.” Colossians 4:; cf. Eph 5:14

Redemptively Engaging Culture

This sweeping command to redeem the time, explicitly through conversations, but implicitly through everything we do warrants redemptive engagement with culture. Perhaps there is something wrong with Carson’s definition of “culture” or maybe we need to clarify what we mean by “redeeming”? Provisionally, I am thinking of gospel-motivated critique and change of cultural forms and content. Nevertheless, the gospel compels us to redemptively engage both peoples and cultures. How? To redeem places—where you gather as a church, where you live in a neighborhood or condo or apartment complex. To redeem cultural products—films you watch, music you listen to, art and advertisement you take in, games you play. To redeem bad political practices—voting for certain propositions, supporting certain policies. To redeem domains like education—to raise the quality of education offered, to promote theological perspectives alongside secular perspectives, to advocate better salaries for teachers.

These are a few ways (here’s more on that) we can redemptively engage culture, which are warranted by Christ on the cross, by Paul from prison, by the Bible as a whole, a document that is, itself, redemptive literature that has affected the writing of novels, short stories, journalism, history, and so on. Should we redeem culture? I think so, but we must be careful not to call the creation of Christian sub-culture redemption of culture; that, of course, is often just bad culture creation and Andy Crouch recently has helped us out with that. I say, redeem, but redeem wisely!

My Connections

11 comments

i’d love to hear your comments on the recent convo @ the 9 marks blog on this very issue. i can’t put my finger on it but i’m struggling with their view on culture redemption – which, btw, i resonate more with you and crouch on.

I’m always a little hesitant when I read about redeeming culture, especially when it gets extended like you did above – redeeming places, products, practices, and domains. Agreeing of what specifically needs to be redeemed and how to do it is a matter of much difficulty.

I’ll stick with education since you listed it. I don’t see how advocating for better salaries for teachers is a matter of redeeming education. My wife was a teacher at a private Christian school, then a teacher at a public school, then a teacher’s aide in a Head Start classroom in a public pre-school. She was paid worst at the Christian School, best at the public schools, and had fabulous benefits at the public schools which significantly raised the real benefit of her salary. Simply arguing for higher pay doesn’t address any of the structural deficiencies nor lack of accountability in current public schools. When we get into redeeming actions, they inevitably end up as policy points, which may or may not point back to Christ. And if they don’t point back to Christ, are we really redeeming anything?

I see similarities between redeeming culture and the idea of “kingdom work”. Mark Dever, pastor of Capital Hill Baptist Church in DC, which sponsors 9Marks, makes the point in this interview with Ed Stetzer that kingdom work can only be done by those who are actually part of the kingdom.

I worry in all the talk about redeeming culture that we can easily lose the distinctiveness between the church and culture and quickly become enraptured with it.

I certainly don’t think that raising salaries alone is redemptive; it was just one example of a potentially redemptive practice in facilitating good teaching, reform, and education. Education is much more complex than money.

So, I’m not sure I really follow your counter-point. You summarize by saying that to be redemptive we have to “point back to Christ,” which helps advance the discussion. So are you syaing that feeding the poor, curing preventable diseases, and defending orphans and widows is not redemptive unless Jesus is attached to it?

How do you explain the texts I mentioned above that prescribe redemptive activity without requiring Jesus being attached to it?

Of course we have to point back to Christ in redeeming the culture. We are mainly doing it for His glory and not the need of man anyway, right? I didn’t see what texts you are referring to that implied that we must redeem culture without pointing back to Christ. Could you please name those? If all we are doing in redeeming the culture is feeding the hungary and tending to the widow and the orphan, then we are doing what most other false religions are doing; doing good deeds with no regard for Christ. Culture is meant to be redeemed for Christ’s sake, not anyone else’s sake.

My basic point in that particular statement, not in my whole approach to culture, is that we can redemptively engage culture without literally pointing to Jesus, without saying “I am cleaning the apartment for homeless women because of Jesus.” we can point to him without pointing as we embody his character and love and grace. We should, and I do, talk about him when given the opportunity.

My basic point is we don’t have to slap Jesus on everything we do, rather, Jesus should emanate from everything we do as redeemed sinners living a redeemed life in a not yet redeemed world.

We can “give a cup of water in Jesus’ name” without Jesus name being on the cup, and he still gets the glory. (Mk 9:41). The point of this text is that there are people who actually do this to us, that may not line up with our theology, but are nevertheless doing it redemptively.

We can “redeem the time” by the way we conduct ourselves among outsiders, as people who are peculiar and holy without being bigoted and self-righteous, and Jesus gets the glory while out conduct enriches and redeems the moral and social fabric of society. (col 4:16) This clearly the point of the text in the household codes that address social institutions of family and slavery and work.

We can “feed, clothe, and visit the sick” and the very act is an act done unto Jesus! (matt 24:31-46) The point of this text is that, somehow, Jesus is in our redemptive engagement with other suffering humans, and that a life lived with good doctrine but not redemptively is good enough to keep us out of the kingdom of God.

The brother that made mention of education,yes not about salary,which could be a part of it,but most especially the lies being propagated in education system in the USA in particular,where Humanist belief system and culture is being enthroned under the pretext of democracy. In his book titled “America a free peoples sucide” Prof Osguiness. helps to point out the ungodly culture that has taken over the nation of USA.Which is yearning for the redemptive mission of Christ to redeem the culture.

It will mean knowing that which is good and pleasing to the Lord in the Education,Health and other social systems.

Worthy to note,Christ died for the world,not the church.While we are yet sinner’s He died for us.And presently reconciling all things to himself. The kingdom remains the light of the world,seeking the common good of all,respective of your belief system.